CHAIRMAN: Distinguished delegates, ladies and gentlemen, may we start the proceedings of Commission III. Before we start the formal proceedings I must express my gratitude for my election as Chairman of Commission III. I consider it an honour to my country to be called upon in this capacity. I am also grateful to the Group of 77 and to the Asian Group, which nominated Pakistan to lead this Commission. I hope that with your cooperation the proceedings will go smoothly and come to a satisfactory conclusion. With these remarks we can now start the proceedings.
We will start with Item 16 of the Agenda, Statutory Report on Status of Conventions and Agreements, and Amendments thereto. I now call on the Legal Counsel to introduce the subject.
LEGAL COUNSEL: In accordance with Rule XXI.5 of the General Rules of the Organization, the Director-General reports to the Conference whenever a convention, agreement, or a supplementary convention or agreement, concluded under Article XIV of the Constitution comes into force or ceases to be in force, or has been amended and the amendments have come into force.
In addition, under established practice, the Director-General also informs the Conference of any developments which may occur in connection with:
The two documents before you - C 81/10 and C 31/10-Sup.l - contain the relevant information on the status of the treaties to which I have just referred.
It should be noted that the Statutory Report which is being submitted to the Conference, follows the same pattern as earlier reports, except that this time it also contains declarations and reservations made by parties to conventions and agreements, in respect of which the Director-General exercises depositary functions. This change was introduced in Document C 81/10 in line with a well-established United Nations practice.
It may be appropiate to refer briefly to some recent developments that are not reflected in the documents before you. First, on 11 November 1981, the Government of Mexico deposited with the Director-General a notification of acceptance of the revised text of the International Plant Protection Convention. Secondly, as regards the Plant Protection Agreement for the South East Asia and Pacific Region, the Director-General received, on 4 and 5 November 1981 respectively, from the Governments of the Republic of Korea and the Kingdom of Tonga, instruments of adherence including declarations accepting the amendments to the Agreement, approved by the FAO Council at its Seventy-Fifth Session in June 1979. Thirdly, a Conference of Plenipotentiaries, which met in Caracas, Venezuela, from 8 to 11 September 1981, adopted and opened for signature an Agreement for the Establishment of a Regional Centre on Agrarian Reform and Rural Development of Latin America and the Caribbean (CARRDLA). While the Agreement was concluded outside the framework of FAO, the* depositary functions were conferred upon the Director-General of FAO. The agreement was opened for signature in Caracas on 11 September 1981 and remains open for signature at the FAO Headquarters in Rome. Eligible States may become parties to the Agreement by signature followed by the deposit of an instrument of ratification or accession. The Agreement will enter into force upon deposit of instruments of ratification or accession by the Government of the host State (Ecuador) and by the Governments of at least five other eligible States. On 11 September 1981, 13 countries signed the Agreement, subject to ratification. No instrument of ratification or accession has been deposited as yet.
With reference to paragraphs 22-24 of the Report before you, I feel I ought to point out that the Conference, in approving the amendments to the International Plant Protection Convention by Resolution 14/79, stressed that it would be in the interest of the international community that the revised version of the Convention should enter into force "without delay". Bearing in mind that amendments enter into force only after acceptance by two-thirds of the Contracting Parties, the Conference at its last session therefore urged the parties to the Convention to accept the revised text at the earliest possible time. The present situation is that, out of 82 parties, only 22 have so far deposited an instrument of acceptance. Therefore, at least another 33 acceptances are required before the revised Convention can become effective. In view of the importance of the Convention in strengthening international action against the spread of important plant pests, especially in the context of international trade, an acceleration of acceptance seems highly desirable. The Conference may therefore wish to reiterate its appeal to States that have not yet accepted the revised version of the Convention to deposit an instrument of acceptance as soon as possible.
CHAIRMAN: The discussion is now open for comments, suggestions, interventions and any other observations that delegates might wish to make.
M. BATAULT (France): Je voudrais simplement m'associer à ce qu'a dit le Conseiller juridique et lancer un appel aux gouvernements qui n'ont pas encore ratifié ces amendements. Il s'agit de 33 gouvernements; il nous manque encore 33 ratifications; et il me paraît essentiel qu'avec ces amendements, la Convention sur la protection des végétaux puisse entrer en vigueur et fonctionner normalement. En effet tout sera bloqué aussi longtemps que ces amendements n'auront pas été ratifiés par tous les gouvernements concernés. Donc je voulais simplement prendre la parole pour lancer un appel aux délégués des gouvernements concernés afin qu'ils demandent à leurs gouvernements de ratifier, aussitôt que possible, ces amendements. Ce sont des amendements simples et qui ne me paraissent devoir prêter à aucun problème. En conséquence, il serait bon qu'ils soient ratifiés aussi rapidement que possible.
P. VANDOR (Hungary): I would just like to repeat what the delegate of France said just now. My country is among the countries who have already deposited an instrument of acceptance relating to the amendments to the International Plant Protection Convention. I would like to appeal to the representatives of other countries who have not yet done so to do it as soon as possible and to take urgent action to have this Plant Protection Convention in force as soon as possible.
J. HEIDSMA (Netherlands): I would also like to refer to the amendments to the International Plant Protection Convention. My Government has recently deposited an instrument of acceptance of these amendments. As you indicated already, the number of countries that have also deposited such instruments still falls far short of the necessary number needed to make the revised Convention effective. I would therefore like to urge Member States to deposit their instruments of acceptance without delay.
J. SAINSBURY (Australia): I would just like to add the voice of the Australian delegation to that of the previous three speakers. Australia has deposited its instrument of acceptance for the amendments to the Plant Protection Convention and we would join others in urging that other countries also deposit their acceptances as soon as possible to allow the amended Convention to enter into force.
CHAIRMAN: I will ask Mr. Dobbert to inform this forum whether there is anything under Item 17.
LEGAL COUNSEL: It is habitual for the Conference Agenda to incude an item on Other Constitutional and Legal Questions because sometimes during the Programme and Finance Committees CCLM or during the Council, certain legal items come up, which can then be considered easily under this item of the Conference Agenda.
At this time there appears to be no topic that would have to be discussed under this item. It is not quite to be excluded that one item or another may come up from Commission II and may be referred to Commission III, as has already been done on earlier occasions during the Conference session.
If I may, Mr. Chairman, I would therefore suggest that item 17 be left aside for the time being but remain open for any other topic that may come up while the Commission is still in session.
CHAIRMAN: Unless any delegate has any objection to this, we will pass it over and leave it open for the future.
P.J. SKOUFIS (Assistant Director-General, Department of Administration and Finance): Under consideration are the following audited accounts and External Auditor's Reports, Regular Programme 1978-79, which is contained in document C 81/5; the United Nations Development Programme 1979 and 1980, which is contained in documents C 81/6 and C 81/6(a) plus the corrigendums related to these two documents, and also the World Food Programme Accounts 1979 and 1980, which are contained in documents C 81/7 and C 81/7(a).
These accounts and reports have been reviewed in depth by the Finance Committee at its 46th Session and by the Council at its 78th and 80th Sessions. Their comments of both sessions are to be found in CL 78/REP, paragraphs 159 and 162, and in the Conference document before you C 81/LIM/12.
In all cases, the Council has noted the comments of the External Auditor and has endorsed the steps taken by the Director-General with regard to the External Auditor's observations.
In accordance with Financial Regulation XI and 12.10, these accounts are to be approved by the Conference. A draft Resolution is contained in document C 81/LIM/12, which is now before the Conference for its consideration and adoption.
CHAIRMAN: I will now open the floor for discussion, comments, observations or suggestions.
R. A. SORENSON (United States of America): The United States delegation has studied the reports of the External Auditor contained in documents C 81/5, C 81/6 (a) and C 81/7 (a). These reports are very well executed in our opinion and permit my delegation to use this occasion to praise not only the high quality of the Audit Report but FAO's management as well. My delegation is committed to praising good management in the United Nations system wherever we find it.
Since the External Auditor's Report on the Regular Budget has already been examined in an intergovernmental body of which the United States is a member, we will not repeat our comments on that document here, but by reference we include that section of the Report in our general comments on the Report.
On the whole, the External Auditor's Report indicates that FAO's handling of funds is sound and skillful. We find the External Auditor's suggestions well-reasoned and to the point. The recommendations usually call for tightening up rather than re-vamping FAO's execution of certain types of management procedures. For example, my delegation believes that it would be a simple enough step, as recommended in C 81/6(a), to make timely notifications to the banks when there is a change of personnel who are authorized signatories for certain accounts. We are also sure that FAO managers are hard at work to ensure that the Organization remains within flexibility margins on projects.
We will welcome the announcement in the next Report of the External Auditor that these problems no longer exist, and we join the External Auditor in welcoming FAO's progress toward better budgetary control over UNDP projects, because such control directly affects the credibility of the management of FAO, which FAO not only enjoys with UNDP managers but with the UNDP Governing Council, where significant decisions are made that affect FAO's role as an executing agency for UNDP.
We find that the External Auditor's Report on WFP likewise indicates sound management practices and a well-run programme. Probably the only instance where my delegation disagrees with the recommendation of the External Auditor occurs in sub-paragraph (i) of paragraph 41, where he suggests that there should in future be an application for a contingent supplementary budget estimate to meet unbudgeted expenditure for, among other things, a retroactive general service staff salary increase. Certainly, my delegation's reaction to this proposal will not come as a shock to FAO or WFP management or to other recommendations are well-founded and like those in the Report on FAO point to ways and means of tightening up management procedures that would benefit both programme recipients and all other government members of these Organizations who strive to increase the credibility of FAO and WFP with both our national governments and the public at large.
In conclusion, I would like to make an observation about document C 81/LIM/12, which contains a Draft Resolution for this Conference to consider with respect to the audited account. The document is an extract from the Report of the 80th Session of the council earlier this month. The proposed Resolution» my delegation feels, adequately disposes of the External Auditor's Reports by adopting the audited accounts. However, there are also management issues that the Draft Resolution does not address, the External Auditor's recommendations and the response by management to these recommendations. However, the full extract before us in the paragraph following the Draft Resolution contains language that my delegation believes could easily be adapted for these purposes. That section simply states that the Council endorses the recommendations of the External Auditor contained in his Report and noted the measures taken by the Secretariat in response to these recommendations. I believe that an additional substantive paragraph could be added to the Draft Resolution before us stating that the Conference endorses the recommendations of the External Auditor contained in his Report and notes the measures taken thus far by the Secretariat in response to these recommendations.
CHAIRMAN: I will request Mr. Skoufis, Assistant Director-General, to make a presentation to this meeting.
P. J. SKOUFIS (Assistant Director-General, Department of Administration and Finance): The documents relevant to this item are C 81/LIM/3, Scale of Contributions 1982-83, and C 81/LIM/23, Third Report of the Resolutions Committee Commission III. Document C 81/1IM/3 is an extract from the Report of the 79th Session of the Council and contains a recommended Draft Resolution for approval by the Conference. The Resolution provides that the scale of contributions for 1982-83 should be derived directly from the current United Nations scale of assessments adapted for the differences in memberships between the United Nations organization and FAO. This UN scale, in fact, remains in force for a three-year period, that is, 1980 through 1982. Since the current FAO scale is based on the United Nations scale in force in 1980, the proposed FAO scale for 1982-83 is the same as the current one, however with adjustments to reflect the admission of five new Member Nations which occurred at this Session of the Conference.
It will be noted from document C 81/LIM/23, the Resolutions Committee has examined this Draft Resolution and found it receivable. That document also contains as appendix to the Resolution the proposed scale adjusted to take into account the admission of five new Member States on 7 November 1981. The adoption by the Conference of this proposed scale would be in accordance with past practice and specifically with the decision of the 8th Session of the Conference in 1955 that the FAO scale for future biennia be derived directly from the United Nations scale of assessments in force during the calendar year of each Conference Session.
CHAIRMAN: We now open the subject to discussion. Any delegate wishing to express himself is welcome to do so.
A.F.M. de FREITAS (Brazil): The scale of contributions adopted by FAO, as we heard Mr, Peter Skoufis explaining just now, is derived from the scale of contributions of the United Nations. The mathematical adjustments are due to the absence from FAO of some important contributors.
In the biennium that ends this year the percentage contribution of Brazil to the United Nations is 1.27 which is converted into 1.55 in its contribution to its contribution to FAO. The annual contribution of Brazil to FAO will be increased by about 30 percent in the budget to be approved by this Conference.
Mr. Chairman, with your permission, I would like to propose that the difference between the two scales of contributions should not be determined exclusively by the mathematical application of the UN scale of contributions. Other factors should be taken into consideration. I am thinking of the balance of payments of non-oil-producing developing countries and the resulting burdens which the new obligations present to them.
I am also thinking of the related problem of foreign debt and the high expenditure involved in its servicing. I would mention the recognition by FAO of the existence of the pockets of poverty which are the plight of the so-called Middle Income Countries. Lack of attention to those elements led to the distorted situation which makes a few developing countries responsible for a larger share in the scale of contributions, with some larger countries taken individually.
My delegation would like to submit all those facts to the consideration of this Commission, and to recommend the Secretariat undertake a study in which this situation is duly analysed and a solution is proposed in order to correct the distortion originating from the mechanical application to FAO of the scale of contributions of the UN. Until such a change is adopted my delegation will not be able to support the FAO scale of contributions.
In these conditions my delegation does not approve the proposed scale for the biennium 1982-83.
CHAIRMAN: Is there any other delegate wishing to express himself? If there are no more interventions I will call upon Mr. Skoufis to explain this formula in the light of the remarks made by the delegate of Brazil.
P.J. SKOUFIS (Assistant Director-General, Department of Administration and Finance): As I pointed out in my introductory remarks, the scale of contributions is developed in New York by a committee comprised of Member nations of the United Nations Organization. In developing this scale they have taken into account the consequences of their terms of reference, several of the factors that the distinguished delegate of Brazil enumerated.
However, as pointed out, the scheme which is currently under consideration was adopted by the UN General Assembly 1980 based on statistics provided to the General Assembly by the Committee of Contributions, covering a seven-year period, 1971-77, and taking into account the capacity to pay of the Member nations at that time, and due regard to the economics of developed and developing countries developed this scale.
As we in FAO apply the scale, we must take into consideration the differences in our membership - and there are substantial differences in memberships between the United Nations and FAO. There are nine countries of the United Nations which are not included in FAO. On the other hand, there are five members in FAO that are not members of the United Nations, but there is a substantial difference in the rate of contributions in these different memberships, and in order for the scale of assessment in FAO to add up to 100 percent and collect 100 percent of this budget we have to apply this mathematical scale which brings about different figures for different countries.
The mathematical scale applied to Brazil, of course, is the same mathematical scale applied to all Member nations here in FAO. We would, of course, be happy to re-examine the scale and provide further explanations, and appreciate the concern and reservations entertained by the delegate of Brazil.
20.2 Headquarters Accommodation
20.2 Locaux du Siège
20.2 Locales de oficina en la Sede
P.J. SKOUFIS (Assistant Director-General, Department of Administration and Finance): I have a busy morning this morning! Item 20.2, Headquarters Accommodation, is elaborated upon in document C 81 /LIM/14 which is before the Conference.
The question of Headquarters Accommodation has been under review by the Finance Committee and the Council for many years. On the recommendation of the Finance Committee the Council has repeatedly requested the Director-General to pursue vigorously and urgently with the Italian authorities the proposal for a new building complex, which is the only permanent solution that would enable the Secretariat of the Organization and the World Food Programme to be grouped in one location.
Pending this, the Council endorsed the Director-General's proposal for some interim solution, and these measures are namely: (1) the construction of office accommodation on the 8th floor, the roof of Building D, which would permit the provision here in Headquarters of approximately 60 additional offices; (2) a second interim measure was the hiring or acquisition of a building in the immediate vicinity of the Caracalla complex, which is the complex here, to be made available to the Organization; and (3) a proposal for the acquisition almost in the immediate vicinity of the Caracalla complex and the construction there of another office block with a view to reducing or completely dispensing with the space' in Building F presently rented by the Organization.
In January 1980 the Government of Italy made available to the Organization the so-called Building D in this compound. I may add that this matter had been initiated and had been under discussion since 1962. However, upon acquisition of this space we were able to release some rented premises, but the Organization still has to maintain rented office space at about six kms. from the main buildings to house about 900 staff members of FAO in the World Food Programme. We identify that building as Building F on the Cristoforo Colombo. This is costing about $1 million a year in extra staff because of duplication of certain services, as well as the cost of transportation and communications between the two locations. More serious still is the enormous loss of time and efficiency through constant movement of staff and visitors back and forth between the two buildings. I believe members of the permanent representatives here in this room know the conditions to which I am referring.
The Director-General has been in constant communication with the Italian Government and has made repeated communications in writing to expedite action. On the interim measures proposed by the Director-General the Government has indicated its willingness to consider position (1), namely the construction of approximately 60 offices on the roof of Building D. Unfortunately, this measure would be totally inadequate. Even when this construction is completed it would not be possible to release the rented property we have in Cristoforo Colombo and re-establish the members in one location. Moreover, considering it took approximately four years after the construction of Building D got started before it was made available to the Organization - this was four or five years ago when the building was vacated by the Ministry of Post Office and Telecommunications - it took about four years to complete the project. Therefore, even if we started on the 8th floor of Building D, we estimate it would take several years before the additional accommodation would become available,
The other temporary measures, which the Council endorses fully as essential to be undertaken in parallel, have not yet been reacted upon by the Italian authorities.
As regards the new building complex that has been proposed, no concrete action has been taken by the Italian authorities as yet. We have had general verbal expressions of the general will of the Government to construct this complex, which would serve as a World Agricultural Centre. The Government's welcomed intentions were again expressed by the Honourable Spadolini, President of the Council of Ministers, in his address during his visit to FAO on the occasion of World Food Day last month. However, in a realistic assessment of the time required to put up a new building complex, including the necessary preparatory work which would possibly exceed a minimum of ten years from now, the Director-General considers the situation is grave and concrete action would have to be initiated now in order to avoid a prolonged continuation of the present situation.
There is another important aspect of this problem that I wish to bring to attention, and that is the need to undertake major repairs to a prefabricated building put up in 1965 which has already outlived its normal life span. This is Building E which houses staff of our offices in this complex here. There is no space to house the 120 members in that building when it will have to be evacuated to permit the necessary repair work. The alternative would be to rent to our member governments high-cost offices outside, with considerable loss of staff time and efficiency.
It is for these reasons and this background I have provided that the Finance Committee has this autumn recommended to the Council that the matter be brought to the attention of this Conference. The Council has endorsed the recommendations of the Finance Committee that Conference appoint a working party consisting of several Member nations selected on a regional basis which should be convened by the Director-General, to meet with the Italian authorities at the highest level and support the Director-General's representations for prompt remedial action. The Council's recommendations and the Conference resolution is accordingly submitted for the consideration of the Conference and for its adoption in document C 81/LIM/14, which is now before this assembly.
G. BULA HOYOS (Colombia): El señor Skoufis ha planteado muy bien la situación en relación con los locales de oficinas en la sede, de manera que no vamos a repetir los argumentos que ya el expuso.
Nuestra intervención está dedicada exclusivamente a hacer una propuesta formal sobre el documento LIM/14; propuesta que está contenida en dos puntos: primero, proponemos que esta Comisión adopte, apruebe el Proyecto de Resolución que aparece en ese documento LIM/14 y mediante el cual se establece un grupo de trabajo integrado por siete miembros representantes de cada una de las siete regiones de la FAO, y, segundo, que la Conferencia delegue en el Consejo la función de escoger esos siete estados miembros, que el Consejo podría escoger en su 81° período de sesiones inmediatamente después de esta Conferencia.
Hacemos esta propuesta, señor Presidente y distinguidos colegas, porque consideramos que al apoyar la Conferencia misma este Proyecto de Resolución se preserva la función política de órgano supremo de la Conferencia, lo cual estaría de acuerdo con el alto nivel que deseamos dar a este grupo para que pueda, asimismo, tener entrevistas con funcionarios de alto nivel del Gobierno italiano, y al delegar la Conferencia en el Consejo la escogencia de esos siete miembros se facilitaría ese trabajo. Así se ha hecho en el pasado porque, sin duda, el ambiente del Consejo es más reducido, más limitado que el de la Conferencia y es más fácil que se logre esa escogencia.
Consideramos que sería importante incluir en nuestro informe, o tener en mente todos nosotros que, como ya se dijo en el Consejo, los países escogidos para integrar ese grupo de trabajo sean Estados que tengan representantes residentes en Roma, para facilitar la labor de ese grupo, para evitar que se cree una estructura burocrática, porque ese no es el propósito, y también especificar en la parte correspondiente de nuestro informe que la función esencial de ese grupo de trabajo es asistir al Director General, ofrecer el apoyo político indispensable al Director General para que siga tratando con el distinguido Gobierno Italiano estos problemas.
Comprendemos muy bien las dificultades y las situaciones que en ocasiones anteriores han expresado sobre este tema los distinguidos representantes de Italia, pero podemos asegurarles que no se trata de un grupo de trabajo que va a ejercer presiones indebidas, sino que a la altura de la competencia de representantes de gobiernos, y con todo el respeto y la ponderación necesarios, asistir al Director General en este empeño.
Mme. G. ROSSI PEROTTI (Italie): Ma délégation, à l'occasion de la quatre-vingtième session du Conseil de la FAO, a déjà pris position sur cette question et sur le projet de résolution. Elle espère donc que cette précision a bien été enregistrée.
CHAIRMAN: Are there any other delegates wishing to make any comments?
R.A. SORENSON (United States of America): I appreciate very much the constructive suggestions and comments of my distinguished colleague of Colombia. I am wondering, however, if we remand this to the Council to make the decision with respect to who will represent each of the regional groups, whether the implementation of this Resolution might not be unduly delayed, because, if I understand the procedures correctly, that would mean that the recommendation of the Council would eventually have to come back to the Conference which is the supreme governing body. Perhaps I am wrong - it is just a point of clarification - but from our point of view we would not want to see any decision made which would unduly delay the implementation of this Resolution.
G. BULA HOYOS (Colombia). Creo que nuestra posición es muy clara y concuerda con la del distinguido representante de los Estados Unidos. Hemos propuesto que la Conferencia, que es el organo supremo, adopte, apruebe este Proyecto de Resolución, o sea que la decisión se va a tomar aquí; pero que la Conferencia delegue en el Consejo la función de que inmediatamente en el período siguiente a esta Conferencia se escojan esos siete miembros, y esa decisión no tendrá que volver a la Conferencia.
Hacíamos esta propuesta por facilitar esa escogencia, pero si los otros colegas no están de acuerdo con nuestra propuesta, será la Conferencia misma la que los escoja. Pero esto lo hemos hecho en el pasado, y el señor Dobbert podrá confirmar el hecho de que la Conferencia puede delegar en el Consejo sin que esto cause retraso en la decisión.
CHAIRMAN: Before giving the floor to the next speaker I would like to inform this House that consultations have been made with the relevant groups and governments, and the Committee on Headquarters accommodation is as follows: Africa, Congo; Asia to be represented by Bangladesh; Europe, Greece; Latin America is still open; Near East, Saudi Arabia; North America, United States of America; South-West Pacific, Australia.
P.J. SKOUFIS (Assistant Director-General, Department of Administration and Finance): The list of the working party that you have read out, Mr. Chairman, pending the nomination of a Member State by the Latin America Region would be supplied in the Resolution contained on Page 2 of the English version of document C 81/LIM/14, paragraph 2. Since this has already been carried out and consultations with the regions have already taken place, with all due respect for the delegate of Colombia, I believe it would be simpler now to leave it on the basis of adopting the Resolution as put forward by the Council in the LIM document. This would obviate having to take it up again in the Council which, as you recall, is a one-day meeting following this Conference and is already fully engaged with other elections.
CHAIRMAN: Does the delegate of Colombia wish to make an observation on this remark?
G. BULA HOYOS (Colombia): Estoy perfectamente de acuerdo. Yo ignoraba que se habían adelantado ya contactos con otras regiones. Sólo quiero agregar que el grupo latinoamericano, como podrán confirmarlo algunos colegas aquí presentes, ha escogido a Colombia para ser parte de ese grupo.
P. ALVARENGA (El Salvador): En efecto, mi intervención era para apoyar la propuesta de la delegación de Colombia estimando que era más práctica la selección de los miembros de la Comisión en el Consejo. Sin embargo, tal como él lo ha aclarado, si ya se han hecho los contactos suficientes con los grupos regionales la cuestión, entonces, está decidida y, en efecto, confirmo lo que el distinguido delegado de Colombia ha afirmado en el sentido de que el grupo latinoamericano apoya la representación de Colombia para formar parte de esta Comisión.
L. STAMBUK (Yugoslavia): As we are all aware, the present FAO buildings made available by the host Government of Italy are far from being sufficient for accommodating the Headquarters staff of FAO, the World Food Council and the World Food Programme. We wish to express our belief in the goodwill of the Italian Government in finally resolving the pressing problem, although we hope in a somewhat more efficient manner. I should also like to state that the delegation of Yugoslavia fully endorses the proposed concrete action by the Director-General concerning this matter and the corresponding resolution on it.
CHAIRMAN: Do any other delegates wish to speak on this subject?
M.E. BONDANZA (Argentina): Sí, también quiero expresar que nuestra delegación está de acuerdo en la decision de Colombia para integrar el Grupo de Trabajo a que se refiere este Documento 14.
CHAIRMAN: I will now request Mr. Skoufis to read out the list again, so that the position is known more clearly.
P.J. SKOUFIS (Assistant Director-General, Department of Administration and Finance): Therefore with regard to paragraph 2 of the Resolution for the Conference regarding Headquarters accommodation, the Conference decides that the working party will comprise the following member nations: Congo, Bangladesh, Greece, Saudi Arabia, United States of America, Australia and Colombia.
20.4 Abolition of Audited Interim Accounts
20.4 Suppression des comptes provisoires verifies
20.4 Supresión de cuentas provisionales comprobadas
P.J. SKOUFIS (Assistant Director-General, Department of Administration and Finance): Financial Regulation 2.1 provides that the financial period of the Organization shall be two calendar years. However, the accounts of the Organization have been prepared and submitted to the External Auditor for audit on an annual basis.
In the context of a biennial programme of work and budget cycle the usefulness of audited interim accounts is limited. It has therefore been proposed that the accounts of the Organization should be presented for audit only at the end of each financial period.
With regard to the extra-budgetary activities, we have received confirmation from UNDP that the submission of unaudited interim accounts would be acceptable.
This proposal has been endorsed by the Council at its Seventy-ninth Session and by the Twelfth Session of the CFA in respect of the World Food Programme and it has also been worked out with the cooperation of the external auditors. A draft Conference Resolution outlining the necessary changes to the Financial Resolution is contained in document C 81/LIM/l dated September 1981, which is now before the Conference for consideration and adoption.
20.5 Status of Contributions
20.5 Etat des contributions
20.5 Estado de las cuotas
P.J. SKOUFIS (Assistant Director-General, Department of Administration and Finance): Item 20.5 concerns the status of contributions and the documents relevant to this Item are: C 81/LIM/15, C 81/LIM/21 which deal with the status of contributions of 4 November 1981.
The Appendix C 81/LIM/15 lists outstanding contributions as at that date. However, subsequent to 4 November and up to today the following additional contributions have been received. These contributions received from 4 November through 19 November are as follows: Belgium - $1 561 658.59; Burundi - $11 056.00; Chad - $1 200.00; Haiti - $36 702; Mauritania - $8 195.09; Somalia -$10 150.36. These contributions received from the fourth of November through today amount to $1 628 952.04. This, of course, changes the total which you have before you in the LIM document 15, for outstanding contributions at this date now total $30 244 224.62, of which $27 216 900.00 is payable in 1981 and $3 027 324.00 is arrears for 1980 and prior years. A few developed countries account for approximately two-thirds of the amount outstanding while one developed country you will note alone accounts for approximately one-third of the outstanding balance of $30 million. The percentage of current assessments collected to date is 80.19 percent compared with 95.65 percent on the same date during the last Conference year in 1979 and 94.41 percent in 1977. Unfortunately the current rate of receipts is one of the lowest on record for a conference year.
With regard to document C 81/LIM/21, the attention of the Conference is drawn particularly to the deep concern expressed by the Council with the unprecedentedly serious position of receipts of contributions throughout much of 1981, as compared with previous years. The rate of receipts has in fact often been lower than the proportional share of the budgetary appropriations. The principle factor giving rise to this adverse contribution position was that several major contributors had significantly shifted their patterns of payment contributions during 1981 until much later in the year and in fact the largest contributor has advised the Organization that in the future its payments would normally be made only in the fourth quarter of the year. The financial regulations of the Organization provide that contributions are due and payable in full within 30 days of the receipt of the communication of the Director-General informing member nations of their obligations in respect of annual contributions to the budget. The Director-General's communications are normally dispatched in mid-December, therefore all contributions should be received at the latest within February of each year.
The cash flow problems arising from a deterioration in the payments of assessments had required the Director-General, in order to ensure the implementaion of the Organization's programme, to propose both the increase in the level of the working capital fund which this Conference will be considering under Agenda Item 20.7 and an authority to borrow, which the Eightieth Session of the Council has already approved. Therefore the Conference may wish to reflect these considerations also in its report and make an appeal for the early payment of assessments in 1982 with a special request to the larger contributors that a high priority be given to the timing of payments to the Organization.
20.8 Remuneration of the Director-General
20.8 Emoluments du Directeur general
20.8 Remuneración del Director General
P.J. SKOUFIS (Assistant Director-General, Department of Administration and Finance): The information on this item is contained in Document C 81/LIM/18. Its purpose is to submit for the consideration of the Conference a proposed resolution under General Rule XXXVI.1(c), which would bring the Director-General's salary and allowances into line with those of executive heads of other United Nations agencies. The document refers to the International Civil Service Commission's recommendations that thirty points of post adjustment, approximately five classes, be consolidated into the base salary of staff in the professional and higher categories on the basis of no loss and no gain to the organization or staff and that the resultant salary scales become effective on 1 January 1981. These recommendations of the Civil Service Commission were approved by the Council and have already been implemented with regard to the FAO staff, except for the Director-General whose remuneration, of course, is established by the Conference.
The Secretariat has been informed that action has been taken in the other United Nations agencies to give effect to the consolidation of post adjustment with regard to their respective executive heads on a no gain, no loss basis. Therefore, your attention is drawn to the operational paragraphs of the proposed resolutions numbered 1 and 2 on the second page of the document before you. This brings about the consolidation recommended by the International Civil Service Commission.
Paragraph 3 of the Resolution proposes that provision should be made whereby such routine changes in entitlements in the future be introduced for the professional and higher categories and approved by subsequent Council action would then therefore automatically apply to the emoluments of the Director-General. This would obviate the need for bringing to the Conference a matter of such an administrative routine nature.
Lastly, paragraph 4 proposes to bring the representation allowance to $24 000 effective January 1, which would be in line with that paid to other United Nations executive heads. The last revision of the Director-General's allocation allowance occurred in 1977, four years ago.
R.A. S0RENS0N (United States of America): This is a question which my Government addressed at length in the Council. My Government opposed the action taken in the General Assembly to increase salary levels throughout the United Nations system. However, since the General Assembly did take action we recognize, as Mr. Skoufis pointed out, that the Resolution before us is simply an attempt to bring the total remuneration package of the Director-General into line with what has been done elsewhere. My Government simply wishes to note, therefore, that we have opposed and we continue to oppose salary increases throughout the United Nations system, at a time when we are cutting our own. Having said this for the record, my delegation would not wish to stand in the way of a consensus.
CHAIRMAN: Since there are no indications of any further comments we would like to conclude this item. Thank you for your cooperation. The meeting is adjourned.
The meeting rose at 11.30
La séance est levée à 11 h 30
Se levanta la sesión a las 11.30 horas
